As It Should BeFandom: Star Trek VoyagerRated: GCategory: Double Drabble. J/C strong friendship implied, but take it as you will.Season: Any, but likely early.Spoilers: None.Summary: Theirs was a special kind of arrangement.Disclaimer: Why bicker about who owns what? Can’t we all just live long and prosper?Note: The Ancient Obsessions list fell two prompts short this year, so while I’m a bit late, I’m supplying two of my own in order to complete a full twenty-four advent fics for you all. This one was written for the prompt of “Christmas Colors.”

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She’d never been much of a believer.

Sure, the ancient holiday persisted, and many celebrated it in their own way, but while she’d grown up with it, she was far too reasonable an adult to participate in this “Christmas” nonsense now.

And so she donned her red and black, not any sort of red and green, as she stepped onto the holodeck for Tom Paris’s annual holiday shindig.

As it should be.

But that night, long after the festivities were over, alone in her quarters, she opened a small gift.

He didn’t celebrate the holiday, either, of course, but he also couldn’t pass up an excuse for gift-giving.

The card was simple. The writing spelled out only, “Merry Christmas, Kathryn,” yet it said so much more.

The use of her first name, and more importantly the fact that the gift was both given and accepted privately, was intimacy defined.

It was an odd sort of arrangement, but it worked for them.

She did not return the gift, and it was not mentioned aloud until four months later, but a smile and a nod across the bridge the next day were understood as well as any words.

O.M.G. How did that get there? *removes the offending apostrophe* Seriously. Crazy ass typo. That's not even a word! But it's all good. All fixed now! Whew! Thanks, Beth! That's what I get for posting this first thing in the morning! (Well, my morning, at least!)